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Perceptions are individual's truths. How do you check your perceptions to know that you are getting an adequate picture?

AstralSmoke 8 Nov 1
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I am never surprised at the different interpretations different people will put on the same piece of artwork. So it shouldn't come as a surprise when different people see different meanings in the same picture of anything. The whole of life is a series of perceptions that we have to navigate, so you just have to trust your BS meter and do constant reality checks.

This is so very true. Unfortunately, I keep laying my BS meter down and forgetting where I left it. Some say that comes with age, but I've been like that my whole life.

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Healthy levels of skepticism and optimism.

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I could always ask a friend(s) to tell me their perception of what I see as a "truth" or concept.

I guess I was thinking more along these lines: You ask them for what they witnessed (their perception) and compare it to what you perceived to have occurred and compare them. The fuller truth might be a combination or it might be neither. I like to try and 'read' people. Sometimes I'm right on. Other times I'm completely wrong.

That's what I meant, to get other points of view and compare notes so to speak.
I should have been more clear.

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"Perceptions are individual's truths."

Not always. When I percieve Penn & Teller do 'magic' I don't think it really is magic but a clever trick.

"How do you check your perceptions to know that you are getting an adequate picture?"

If your perceptions create a blind spot you can't because see because you're blind to it & therefore cannot doubt what you think you really 'know'. The only thing you can do is tell yourself that you actually don't necessarily 'know' anything at all & everything you think you do know is simply a belief. Once you can accept that everything you think you know is ultimately just a belief (or might be - don't take MY word for it!) then you may - perhaps - be able to look at how strong the support for you belief really is if regarded from an opposing perspective & care about the possibility that you may not actually have good reasons for believing what you consider to be 'known facts'. - But beware, it's very very easy to shoehorn bad reasoning into seeming justified when all you've really done is not tested your beliefs to destruction when you could (if you should). That's a problem because your blind spot is carefully maneuvered to cover problematic areas you may not wish to examine closely. To do that you simply have to care more about kidding yourself than being "right". This means challenging your most cherished beliefs more deeply than any other beliefs.

Paul Level 5 Nov 1, 2017

wow ... a spiralling tunnel! You are deep. Everyone has perceptions or 'points-of-view'. We are physical entities and thus have a finite point of view. This viewpoint is our perception. It is physically impossible to view all of the viewpoints. We make decisions everyday, all day long based on our perceptions.

It's funny the things that get stuck unexplainably in my head. The magic trick is something I've been thinking about for a day now. I finally have a reply. You are probably going to the magic show with a preconceived notion that magic is a trick of the eye. Your perceptions are weighted. Similar to the bending of light waves.

But wonder if it wasn't a trick at all, but perhaps a technological advancement that you hadn't witnessed before and didn't have any prior knowledge of? Your perception would tell you it's a trick.

Well @Edward59 whatever it is it's not necessarily what it seems to be usually is it? I mean sometimes 'magic' isn't magic at all but reality which you've assumed cannot be true but is. This example is genuinely mind blowing & well worth the time to see the result:

Very few things are what they appear to be. Case in point: modern humans concerned with appearances. Thanks for the video. It was almost as good as going to a magic show.

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Ask a simple question: who is benefiting? Is there a conflict of interest myself included. Also, and most importantly, Have I had any experience in the particular issue? Have I seen multiple sides? Does it help or harm the ultimate moral - will it lead to further destruction of life, our own included or will it help preserve LIFE (writ large).

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